The invention relates generally to the field of healthcare monitoring, and more particularly to a system and method for wireless temperature monitoring of human or other animals in a home, clinical or institutional setting. It provides a capability of adjusting temperature readings depending upon a body age, a temperature sensor position on the body, and time of day.
One of the most common methods of monitoring the condition of a human or other animal body is by monitoring the body temperature. This is particularly important when a body is suffering from an illness, and particularly febrile or fever producing infections. Mercury filled glass thermometers have historically been the standard for measuring body temperature. Using conventional thermometers, body temperature is most accurately measured by taking oral, tympanic (ear), axillary (armpit), or rectal temperature readings. Because of the potential health and safety risk resulting from the use of mercury filled glass thermometers and the reduction in the price of digital thermometers, consumers are increasingly turning to digital thermometers distributed by large drugstore chains and discount department stores for monitoring body temperature. Because of the large number of children under the age of five years and the growing aging population in the United States, there is a need for new temperature monitoring products that are medically accurate, safe, comfortable, easy to use, and operationally reliable.
While the present invention is applicable to people of all ages, it is more likely to find application in monitoring body temperatures of children, elderly individuals and those suffering from an illness. Children under the age of five who are kept at home generally encounter at least six febrile infections a year. This number increases by about fifty percent if the child attends a daycare center and is exposed to other children. Even though this number decreases somewhat between the ages of five and sixteen years, it is still common to experience several episodes of febrile infections per year at age sixteen. Since young children are oftentimes unable to understand or communicate when they may urgently need assistance, parents and other caretakers must be vigilant to determine the need for medical evaluation or therapy for these children. This is especially true at night when parents are apt to be sleeping. Although excessive or rapidly increasing temperature of the body is a more common cause of health concern, it is oftentimes equally important to monitor low or rapidly decreasing body temperature to be in a position to take remedial action, especially in the case of elderly patients.
Since caretakers may also be family members of the sick as well as professional caretakers, they may also require rest and schedule flexibility in order to handle the demands of the sick family member as well as other demands and responsibilities of home and work. This often requires that the family caretaker endure an interrupted nights sleep in order to monitor a sick family member's temperature on a regular basis throughout the night, even though the sick family member's temperature remains within a nominally acceptable range. This regimen of repeated temperature measurements may be further compounded by diurnal variations in a patient's temperature as well as temporary responses to fever-reducing drugs, even though the fever appears to have subsided. This requirement for repeated temperature measurements also disrupts the patient's sleep when using conventional or digital thermometers. The result may be missed temperature measurements and sleep deprivation for both the caretaker and patient.